Walmart BFL tournament preview
Buckeye, Illini and Piedmont division events set for July 19
The 2014 Walmart BFL season continues with three tournaments on Saturday, July 19. The Buckeye Division is headed to the Ohio River, the Illini Division will fish on Rend Lake and the Piedmont Division is set to take on Falls Lake. Up to 400 boaters and co-anglers will be competing in each event for top awards up to $8,000 and $3,000 respectively.
When: Saturday, July 19
Buckeye Division
Ohio River
Maysville River Park
Main Street
Maysville, Ky.
To sign up and fish this event, click here.
NOTES: The bass fishing on the Ohio River is expected to be good. Most of the field is expected to target main-river current or backwater cover to fill out their limits. The Maysville portion of the Ohio River historically fishes well and smallmouth, largemouth and spotted bass could all be caught. Spinnerbaits, soft plastic stick baits, flukes, jigs, buzzbaits, crankbaits, topwater baits and drop-shot rigs will be popular choices. The winner is projected to bring about 11 pounds of bass to the scale.
Illini Division
Rend Lake
Wayne Fitzgerrell Sailboat Landing
11094 Ranger Road
Whittington, Ill.
To sign up and fish this event, click here.
NOTES: The bass fishing on Rend Lake should be very good. Bass will be in their summertime patterns and could be found at a variety of depths. The competitors are likely to target shallow bushes as well as deeper main-lake structure. Crankbaits, jigs, drop-shot rigs and Carolina rigs will be good baits out deeper while jigs, spinnerbaits and a variety of soft plastics will be popular baits up shallow. It is expected to take about 14 or 15 pounds to win this event.
Piedmont Division
Falls Lake
Ledge Rock Boat Ramp
2601 Olive Grove Church Road
Creedmoor, N.C.
To sign up and fish this event, click here.
NOTES: The bass fishing on Falls Lake should be very good. Falls has a reputation for producing giant bass and to see a bass over 8 pounds come to the scale would be no surprise. Though some fish could be caught shallow, the winner is likely to be targeting fish on deep summertime structure around timber or drop-offs. Typical deep water summer baits like crankbaits, jigs, spoons, Carolina rigs and big plastic worms figure to be productive baits. The winner will likely need to bring in a five-bass limit weighing about 23 pounds.
The BFL is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 120 tournaments throughout the season, five in each division. The top 40 boaters and co-anglers from each division qualify for a regional tournament and are competing to finish in the top six, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the Walmart BFL All-American presented by Chevy. Top winners in the BFL can move up to the Rayovac FLW Series or even the Walmart FLW Tour.
For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the BFL on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWOutdoors.
About FLW
FLW is the industry’s premier tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money nationwide in 2014 over the course of 229 tournaments across five tournament circuits, four of which provide an avenue to the sport’s richest payday and most coveted championship trophy – the Forrest Wood Cup. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW" television show and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world. For more information about FLW visit FLWOutdoors.com and look for FLW on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.